Shoppers generally like shopping in local stores where they can physically interact with the merchandise, get advice and receive purchases immediately. Shoppers also generally like the convenience of shopping online where they can easily research and browse a wide array of merchandise. However, many retailers operate either strictly online without physical stores (e.g., they take orders online and ship from warehouses), and thus do not provide their customers the opportunity to interact in person with the merchandise or sales personnel or take their merchandise home immediately. On the other hand, many traditional retailers rely mainly on local (“brick and mortar”) stores, and do not have (or have minimal) online presence. To better serve customers, traditional retailers have been increasing their online presence, while online retailers have been opening up local retail stores or showrooms.
Although many stores now operate both online and local stores, they often operate as separate entities, and provide disjointed shopping experiences. For example, if a shopper visits a local store, the retailer would have no record of the visit (e.g., date, time, customer data, items browsed, etc.). Once the customer leaves the store, the retailer's connection with that customer is lost. Consequently, when that shopper later visits the retailer's online store, the shopper would need to search for the item(s) that interested them again. Conversely, while many online retailers capture a lot of information on each customer's data and activities (e.g., through the use of browser cookies), this information is generally not available to the local stores. Thus, when a customer later visits the local store, the customer would need to look for the interested item(s) again, and the salespersons at the local store would not have access to information such as the customer's interested item(s), browsing history, whether that have been approved for financing, what marketing they have seen, etc.
Some online retailers enable customers to save the interested item(s) in, for example, a “wish list.” But this is typically nothing more than just a list of saved items that serves as a reminder to the shopper. This information is not generally available to the store to assist shoppers and, as discussed above, retailers are currently unable keep track of, for example, whether or when a customer actually visited the local store, and which items they were interested in at the local store. Without data collection in and consistency between online and in-store shopping, retailers are prevented from providing a seamless shopping experience to customers and miss out on valuable data that can be used to, for example, enhance and increase marketing, target and deliver promotions, and assist and provide incentives for sales persons to facilitate sales.
Accordingly, there is a need for a system that integrates more fully the online and in-person retail stores, and provides a more seamless shopping experience.